Memories of Life
by abrasiveCrusader
Summary: Oneshot. Basically about Tsuna meeting a dying girl.


"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances. If there is any reaction, both are transformed." -Carl Jung

"Ow ow ow…" Tsuna mumbled as he was carried by a stretcher into the hospital.

It was more than apparent that he had gotten involved by one of Reborn's schemes and ended up hurting himself, causing 4 broken bones and a few fractures.

"You again?" one of the nurses said, obviously annoyed, "Look, we're a bit full right now. Apparently, there was an explosion somewhere and our hospitals are getting victims right and left from the incident, so we don't have any room for people like you."

"S-she's still mad from last time…" Tsuna mumbled.

"…But, we do have one room open," she spoke gently before reverting back to her harsh tone, "But just one. Seeing your condition, I guess I can make some arrangements for you."

"Oh um, um, thank you…" Tsuna said meekly.

The nurse led Tsuna, who was now in a wheelchair, to a room in one of the upper floors.

"You'll be sharing a room. I expect you to be better behaved from now on. As in, no surprise visitors. Our patient here is very sick, and she'll need as much rest as possible."

"She? I'll be sharing a room with a girl?"

"_Oh no no no, what happens if Kyoko-chan finds out? She'll probably hate me…"_he thought.

"Look, this was the only room left. It was either here or the streets." The nurse scowled, "I'll leave you two to get acquainted."

The nurse left the room to continue her business at the lobby. Tsuna opened the door with his strongest arm was unscathed from the incident.

He entered a white room, which was impeccably clean. The beds, the curtains, the sheets, everything there was white. The smell of Ethanol filled the room, which made it seem even more sanitized. It was only until he saw a bit of black hair and pale skin did he finally notice the girl who was sitting in another bed next to his.

"Oh. Who are you?" she asked blandly.

"I-I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi!" he nervously stuttered as he gave a half bow, "N-nice to meet you." he said, obviously frightened by her appearance.

She stared at him listlessly, with no interest whatsoever.

"Whatever." she said.

"_S-so scary…"_he thought, _"M-maybe if I can ignore her…"_

Tsuna placed himself on his bed, trying to avoid any eye contact with the girl.

"You're…in middle school, no?" she asked with a flat tone.

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"…It must be nice…" she said no more after that.

"_So weird… how is middle school nice? It troublesome is more I like it."_

It was about two weeks when Tsuna was finally discharged from the hospital. During his stay, he said almost nothing to the girl, aside from the occasional "Hi".

"_Man, I'm glad to be out of that place. That girl was scary."_

"Tenth!" a familiar voice shouted.

"Gokudera-kun!"

"Congratulations on getting out of the hospital! I got you these flowers in celebration of your discharge!" Gokudera presented a small bouquet of white daisy, with some odd red spots around it.

"Gokudera-kun, what are these red spots?" Tsuna asked.

"Oh that. Some guys were trying to jump me after I bought these flowers, but I beat them up. The blood is a sign of victory, just for you Tenth!" Gokudera gave him thumbs up.

"Oh…" Tsuna said as he pulled the flowers away from him, slightly disturbed.

"I'm sorry for not protecting you from those punks earlier Tenth. It was my fault that those guys got to you and you ended up in the hospital."

"It's not your fault! Reborn was the one that told me I should fight those guys."

"I wanted to tell you earlier, but I got them back for what they did to you; on the same day, no less. " Gokudera smiled evilly.

"S-so that explosion that caused the hospital to get filled up was by you?"

"Yup!" he said proudly, "They tried to outnumber me, but luckily for me, I got my newest pack of mini-dynamites from the mail-order catalog."

"Y-you get your dynamites from the mail?"

"Of course! Don't tell me you don't subscribe to Mafia Weekly! Here, I'll share some of my collection with you. Just…" Gokudera said in a hushed voice, "Just don't tell the baseball freak. I can't let him soil the good name of Mafia Weekly."

"N-no, it's okay!" Tsuna laughed.

It was one of those "normal" moments that Tsuna had cherished so much after his release. During his stay in the hospital, the nurse would only allow him to have a single visitor a day, but now he could see his friends any time he wants.

Half-way through the week, he realized that he had forgotten one of his textbooks in the hospital room.

"Crap! I have to go get it back… but that means, I'm gonna have to see that scary girl again…" Tsuna said disappointed.

He took the bus to reach Namimori Hospital, where he saw the nurse again.

"You again? What are you doing here, are you sick again?" she said, as harsh as ever.

"N-no ma'am. I-I left one of my books in the room I was in. I was wondering if I can get it…"

The nurse sighed, "Fine. You remember where the room is right? You can get it yourself; I have some other patients to deal with."

Tsuna took the elevator up to his old room. When he went inside, he saw the same thin, pale skinned girl reading his book.

"H-hey, that's my book!" he said, half-overjoyed, half-intimidated.

"Oh, sorry. I was going to tell the nurses about it, but I wanted to read it…" she said, "Here…"

She gave him back his textbook.

"T-thank you." he said. _"What type of person reads a textbook? Weird…"_he thought/

It was before Tsuna left the room when the girl started to wheeze. He wanted to leave, but then the wheezing became coughing and hacking. It was clear enough that she was having trouble breathing as she gasped for air. Tsuna bolted out of the room to get a nurse to help her. One of the nurses ran into the room and placed an oxygen mask on the girl, before injecting a sedative to ease the pain. It was only minutes before the girl fell asleep.

The nurse thanked Tsuna for his help and helped him outside as he left. When returning home, Tsuna felt proud of what he did, but at the same time, concerned for the girl. It didn't involve him, but he couldn't help feeling worried.

The next day after school, he went to visit the hospital again to check up on her. He got a visitor's pass from the nurse that treated the girl the day before, and visited her room. He knocked on the door two times before letting himself in.

"H-hey… are you okay?"

The girl, who looked considerably better, stared at Tsuna, looking a bit surprise.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better. Thank you for asking." she said in a small voice, "…I honestly didn't think you would come back…"

"I-I was worried." Tsuna tried to explain.

"Thank you but…you shouldn't come here again. You have no business here." she said coldly.

"S-sorry…" Tsuna went out of the room. He was a bit angry that the girl rudely told him to leave, but at the same time, he was relieved that she was feeling better.

A week passed by before he started to get curious. Since he had Sundays off and Gokudera and Yamamoto were busy "training" or whatever, he decided to visit her again.

"H-hi." Tsuna mumbled.

"…Why did you come here?" she asked.

"Well, I noticed last time that you didn't have anything to do last time, so I brought you a book to read."

Tsuna grabbed a book out of a plastic bag and handed it to her.

"I thought you might like it, since you seemed to like reading…"

The girl, again, looked at Tsuna in shocked, "T-thank you…" she said.

"Ha ha, I'm sorry to have bothered you. I guess I'll leave now…" Tsuna laughed nervously.

"…No, you can stay…" the girl smiled, "Thank you, I really appreciate it."

This was probably the first time he ever saw her smile. It was a sad type of smile, but it was enough to get her feeling of gratitude across. Tsuna blushed. No girl ever said thank you to him before.

"Ummm… you're welcome…" he responded.

"I…I seriously didn't think you would come back." the girl said sadly, "No one ever visited me before. I feel…happy." She smiled even more, "That's right… I never introduced myself. My name is Matsumoto Sayuri."

"I-it's nice to meet you." Tsuna said.

"It's…nice to meet you too." Sayuri replied.

They spent about an hour together, though it was mostly Sayuri asking and listening to Tsuna's life in school.

"Oh…" Sayuri said sadly, "It's… already this late… you…you should be heading home. I'm sorry to have kept you here. You'll…come back, right?"

"Y-yeah…I will."

Tsuna said his goodbyes to her as he went home.

Tsuna began making this a weekly thing. He would visit her every Sunday, and tell her about his school life. Every time he tried to ask her about her life, she wouldn't answer, so he had gotten used to being the only one talking.

"…and so Yamamoto-kun hit the ball right out of the field! With that, his team won 7-2 games!" Tsuna finished up his story.

"Hehe." she chuckled, "It sounds like a lot of fun…"

"Yeah, the other day, one of my other friend, Gokudera-kun manage to scare some of the high school kids away."

"Oh…huh, I never told you, did I?" Sayuri said.

"Matsumoto-san, what is it?"

"If I was still in school, I'd probably be a 2nd year in high school."

"If you were in high school…? Y-you don't go to school…?"

"No…"

Tsuna's eyes expressed sympathy towards her.

"Matsumoto-san…"

"Please…don't look at me like that… don't look at me with pity…just treat me as you would a normal person…please…"

Tsuna couldn't help but to feel bad for her. All this time, he didn't understand the joy of going to school, the joy of being with others while Sayuri was in the hospital all alone.

"D-don't…" Tsuna tried hard to ask her this question, "Don't you get any visitors?"

Sayuri looked down.

"No…"

"But how about your parents…?"

"My mom… she, she can't even look at me without crying. I'm her only child and here I am… just here, spending the rest of my life out in the hospital bed…"

"What do you mean, 'living the rest of your life in the hospital bed'?"

"I-I guess you didn't know… I was born with a weak heart…"

"What…?"

"Don't worry, it's not contagious or anything… I just… as a child, the doctors didn't I would make it this far. They didn't think I would live past the age of 6. But here I am. Still alive…but what for…?" Sayuri looked sadly at the ceiling, "I get scared sometimes. My chest would get tight and it would get hard to breathe… Sometimes it feels like I'm trapped…Like there's nowhere for me to go…like I can't run away…"

"Matsumoto-san…I'm sorry, I didn't know…"

Sayuri realized the awkward position she put Tsuna in.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." Sayuri gently smiled, "In fact, ever since you started visiting me, for the first time in years, I felt really happy."

Tsuna became even more uncomfortable. He didn't know that Sayuri was going to die. He innocently thought she was just sick, and was going to get better with time.

"I'm sorry; did I make you feel uncomfortable?" Sayuri asked, "I…shouldn't have mentioned it. Let's…let's talk about something else. Please, I would like to hear more about this 'mafia' story you're in."

Tsuna, as awkward as it was, began retelling the story about him and his adventure in Kokuyo Land and his fight with Mukuro.

"Oh…The sun is setting… you should be getting home before your mom worries."

They waved goodbye to each other as he left.

On the next Sunday, Tsuna decided to go visit Sayuri as usual. But when Tsuna arrived at the hospital, he went into Sayuri's room only to notice that she was being held down by a few nurses.

She gasping and choking for air. The pain in her chest was unbearable, so she began couldn't stay still long enough for the doctor to inject the sedative.

"Tsu…na…" she called out to him.

"Matsumoto-san!"

"A kid?" the doctor notice, "You shouldn't be here! Please go! One of the nurses that were holding Sayuri down escorted Tsuna out of the room before heading back inside.

Tsuna sat outside in the hallway, filled with fear and anxiety. He waited for what seemed like eternity before one of the nurses came out.

"Sayuri had calmed down. She's a bit drowsy from the drug, but she kept saying that she wanted to see you."

Tsuna entered the room to see Sayuri hooked up to a few machines.

"Tsuna…" she said in a hushed, timid voice through her oxygen mask, "I'm scared…I'm so scared…"

"It's okay, it's okay, you're better now." Tsuna tried to keep her calm.

"…I'm so scared…" she repeated, "Please….please stay with me…please, don't go…please…"

Her eyes were welled up with tears.

"Matsumoto-san…" Tsuna said, "D-don't worry, I'm right here. I-I'm not going anywhere…"

"…Thank you…thank you…" Sayuri huffed as her breathing became steadier…, "…thank you..."

Sayuri closed her eyes.

"She finally fell asleep." one of the nurses commented.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Tsuna asked.

"We don't know." one of the other nurses replied, "Her attacks are getting worse and worse… I'm afraid her time here is almost up."

Tsuna's throat dried up.

"No… No! You can't be serious!"

"I'm sorry kid, but this girl never had this much time in this world to begin with. We're doctors, not gods. If we could save her, wouldn't you we already would have tried?"

"But she's…"

"Death is a natural thing. There's nothing we can do to stop it. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. We tried everything we could. I think it's best if you just head home for today. We'll take care of her for the time being."

"But I…" Tsuna kept remembering Sayuri begging him to stay, "I…"

"Please. Just go. Right now, she needs as much rest as she can get."

He couldn't do anything more for her, so he followed the nurse's instructions and left. When he got home, he couldn't sleep that night.

Tsuna decided to go visit the hospital on Sunday. He knocked on the room and entered to see the room empty. The smell of Ethanol was gone, as well as the girl who sat on the bed facing the window.

In a panic, he ran out to find the nearest staff member. But when he finally found somebody, the worst of his fears came true.

"I'm sorry, but Sayuri passed away on last Wednesday night."

Tsuna took a while to digest it. First it was a dry throat feeling, then a hollow feeling in his stomach before he finally felt the full impact of it. He began to cry. It wasn't because of her death, maybe it was more than that. It was the fact that she died alone, even though he promised not to leave her.

"… I'm sorry, I know that you are in a lot of pain right now, but you are Sawada Tsunayoshi, right? If it makes you feel any better, Sayuri left you something."

Tsuna started to wipe his tears, "S-she left me something?"

The doctor handed Tsuna a book. It was the very same book that Tsuna gave her when he visited her a second time. Tsuna thanked the doctor and went home, taking the book with him.

When he got into his room, he opened up the book to find a letter inside. It was labeled: "To Sawada Tsunayoshi". He opened up the letter and began to read it.

" _Dear Sawada-kun,_

_If you're reading this, that means I'm probably not here anymore. I'm sorry to put you through all of this. I was scared of dying alone, but when you told me you would stay by my side, it was only then had I realize how selfish I had been. I'm sorry._

_But I've been thinking lately, though. I've been thinking about how much fun it was being with you. Having you tell me your silly stories and all. It was a lot of fun. Being with you made me realize how happy I was to be alive. All that happiness I felt made me forget about the bad things. I still get scared, but every time I do, I just remember the good times I had with you and my family._

_Hey, if you can, if you ever see my mom, do you think you can tell her something for me?_

_Please tell her 'thank you'. I am…glad to have been born. Tell her that none of this was ever her fault, and that I love her. She tried her best, so she should stop blaming herself. Please tell her, I'm sorry for pushing her away. Please tell her, that no mattered what happened, I always loved our family._

_I'm…glad to have met you, Sawada-kun. Thanks again._

_- from your Senpai, Matsumoto Sayuri._

_P.S. You should read more books like the one you gave me. With the grades you get, you're going to need to read a lot more!"_

Tsuna chuckled. Sayuri's letter seemed to have moved his spirits. He didn't feel guilty anymore. As if a burden was taken off his shoulders once he felt Sayuri's forgiveness.

It was a new day. Tsuna planned to continue to live out his life as it once was, keeping his friendship with Sayuri a secret. As hard as he tried to forget about her, he didn't notice that she too, had changed him. He felt a new resolution burn in him. He no longer took things for granted. He decided to live his life to the fullest, even though he was still the same timid Tsuna, he felt that he had to live his life to its fullest.

It was a brand new day, with new adventure among the horizon. And so one story ends, another begins.


End file.
